Respite
by wishnik
Summary: Just a little pre-Surprise season two snippet examining a moment of calm between apocalypses, and exploring the relationship between Dawn and Angel.


A/N: Well, just a quickie I thought up while blocked for a few other stories. Explores some of the fake memories of Dawn during the Angel era of pre-Surprise season two. Pure, unadulterated fluff awaits.

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"Sooomewhere over the rainbow…" eleven year old Dawn Summers sang softly over the chirping of the crickets, swinging her still-too-short legs over the side of the porch swing. The evening air was warm, and Dawn had recently finished yet another viewing of her current favorite movie, 'The Wizard of Oz'. As she struck up the refrain once more, a tall, black-clad figure made its way up the driveway. 

"Angel!" Grinning widely at her sister's boyfriend, she bounced down the driveway to greet him. "You're back!"

This was very good; Giles had sent the vampire offon a quest for an ancient and ridiculously difficult to find volume of demon lore, which had been the reason for Angel's three day absence. Which in turnmade Buffy extremely cranky. Dawn had decided that if THAT was the way SHE was going to react when her boyfriend wasn't around, then she was never, ever going to get mixed up with the oppositegender. No matter how cool or nice Angel was.

"Hey Dawn," the ensouled vampire greeted. "How have you been?"

Unlike other adults who only asked the questionout of politeness, Angel made it a point to listen when you spoke, which was one of the reasons Dawn liked him so much. Shefurrowed her browin thought.

"Umm…not so great. Bobby Mitchells called me brace-face today in school, and his stupid friends all laughed like it was funny," she pouted.

Angel crouched to be eye level with her.

"Is that so? Am I going to have to go and beat some people up now?" he asked, face a perfect mask of seriousness, though his eyes twinkled with amusement. Dawn nodded her head up and down, ribboned pigtails bobbing with the motion.

"Yeah. And you should go all 'grrr' just to scare them even more," she readily agreed, squinching her face up in a rendition of Angel's vampire visage. He chuckled softly, much to Dawn's delight (he rarely, if ever, laughed, and she just didn't think that was healthy) and his lips quirked up in a half-smile.

"Really?"

"Yup." Another chuckle (that was twice now!) and he affectionately gave one of her ponytails a gentle tug. Dawn stuck her tongue out at him, but didn't actually mind. Angel was one of the ONLY adults she would let do that.

"Don't let the innocent face charm you, Angel, you're looking at suspect numero uno in the staining of a highly valued white sweater with grape juice." A new voice was heard behind Dawn, and the two in the driveway watched as Buffy descended the steps from the house to stand in front of Angel.

Dawn crossed her arms and huffed.

"It was an ACCIDENT. Your stupid sweater shouldn't have been where my grape juice was." The blonde Slayer rolled her eyes as Angel grinned his special 'Buffy' grin at her.

"Yeah Buffy, it wasn't on purpose," he said teasingly. Buffy pouted.

"Oh, so now you're taking her side," she grumbled. "Fine. It's not like I mooned and pined over your absence. And patrolling wasn't lonely at all…" Angel silenced her with a short, sweet kiss.

A gagging noise parted them. Buffy swiped a hand in her sister's head's direction. The eleven year old squealed and ducked.

"Mom says to go inside, you,"the blonderelayed annoyedly as the brunette sidestepped yet another swing. "Away."

"Fine, it's not like I wanted to watch you make googly-eyes anyways," grumbled Dawn, heading up to the house. How someone as neat as Angel could suck faces with someone like her SISTER was beyond Dawn.

Buffy's gaze followed her until Dawn disappeared into the house.

"Finally," the Slayer muttered.

"I think she's sweet," Angel defended the absent Dawn.

Buffy shot him an incredulous stare, then sighed.

"You would think so," she said good-naturedly, shaking her head. "So. I told Mom I was going Bronzing tonight. Or…I could scrap those plans, and we could go…" she wiggled her eyebrows "'patrolling.'" Angel's smile widened slightly.

From the window, Dawn watched, grinning. Well, maybe she wouldn't give up boys FOREVER.

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A/N: Yes, I concede, it was sickeningly sweet. And for my own purposes we'll pretend that Dawn already knew about the slaying and the Angel being a vampire-s'not THAT unrealistic, sometimes sisters know more about you than you do. Apologies if anyone was OOC, I just wanted to give the story a happier tone, a small respite from the constant drama that surrounded the end of season two. 


End file.
